I've launched by hand both from land and from the boat (sailboat, so it is necessary to launch and retrieve by hand), and never had a mishap. Many launches.

Until last night, I don't know what I was thinking .. I wasn't drinking, but perhaps I was too relaxed in my thinking due to just having a nice relaxing day. For some stupid reason, I failed to throttle up with my left thumb after starting the motors, and simply let go of my H, stupidly watching it plunk into the water and disappear.

Idiot.

My question now is how best to proceed. Here are some details:

1. I have the GPS coordinates of the location on my chartplotter, but it's several hours away from here, in about 30' of saltwater, and I'm not sure it's worth retrieving ... is it? Real loss would be all the electronics, most likely the battery, but I could get the props and the Polar Pro ND filter ... worth it? (Plus a little less plastic littering up the sea)

2. I could replace the H as it stands, for about what, $400 or so?

3. I just sent a spare CGO3+ to have the lens upgraded, and I have set of LR antennas on the way to me.

Should I go ahead and buy a regular H, or should I go for the H Pro?

On that note, would it be worth finding a "drone only" H Pro, and use that with my ST16 and the LR antennas?

I would not mind having a spare CGO3+ stock as I do like a wide option (my original intent was to swap cameras depending on scene)

Staff Member

Holy moly! What a nightmare. 30' of saltwater, well soaked. Worthless, except for structural parts.
I have the Pro, and at this point in time I suggest you get that, but you well know it's your decision to make.
I wish you the best.

Pretty much what I thought about the "Dampened H" Some surprised crab will likely try to mate with it, then eventually some fisherman will pull it up ...

My reasons for potentially wanting the Pro, interestingly, do not include the RealSense ... I usually have less need of that than I do clarity of video for framing, etc. Any chance the camera is any better?

I haven't found a source for the Pro version drone only, and no info on whether it will work with my existing ST16 ... or whether my FPVLR set will work, or what ...

Holy moly! What a nightmare. 30' of saltwater, well soaked. Worthless, except for structural parts.
I have the Pro, and at this point in time I suggest you get that, but you well know it's your decision to make.
I wish you the best.

Staff Member

A subjective matter, the camera, but mine is probably the same as the others being shipped now. Good enough for me but maybe not for a professional photographer. 115 degrees (I think). Sharp enough but not enough white balance choice, blah blah. They'll have more choice in the future. Remember the Pro also gives you IPS for indoors stability.

Understood about the "relative" statement. Sometimes I think it's better looking than the Inspire1 cams (yes, even the X5) which I worked with for about a year. Other times, I say "yechhh". I'm almost tending toward getting a "regular" replacement H, and saving up for a Tornado. The H is great for portability. Anything else seems to not be amazingly better yet is bigger, and not as friendly to fly. That's why I would be happy some of the time having the super wide for those times when I'm just trying to get it all (I fly in epic landscapes and forests mostly) and have the Peau lens cam for tighter work when I'm shooting specific. I don't shoot indoors, but occasionally, now that I think of it, I shoot in deep forest, where GPS is unreliable ... I wonder how well the Pro does in that case .. so I can go a little further through the trees and plants/twigs before having to back down due to inability to follow the bird on foot.

It's an organ donor now. Electronics are shot, no question. The plastic and carbon should still be usable, so you have rotor arms, landing gear (those motors will obviously need swapped out), air frame, etc. Couple hundred in parts probably if you add it up.

It's Alaskan (cold) silty water, so I'll have as much luck dredging as I would diving on it. I'll take a grapnel next time I go (I didn't have any luck using oversized weight and treble fishhook, except to catch my own anchor rode)

I'll get a Pro if I can source one (soon) just lost a bif for a gently used regular H full kit, but not gonna pay more that $1000 for something I can get new for $1299. I figure full kit, why not? In this case, if I buy the camera, a spare flying drone, props, a battery, I am already adding up. If I get a full kit I'll sell the ST16 I guess.

Anyone recommend a company to ask for best price on a Pro version drone only?

I appreciate the input!

And yes, I will be nervous, but will pay MUCH more attention to what I am doing ... funny, I was flying my Inspire1 last year close to the same spot, and sitting inside the sailboat so I could get a "people-free" shot, skimming over the water , and suddenly the altitude dipped ... the camera got soaked, Inspire came back to me splashed (as I ascended immediately when it reported landing gear lowering!) and after a few months the camera started working again just as I decided to put it up on ebay as non-working.

Someone (not me) LOL needs to design pontoons that can be attached to landing gear when flying over water

Click to expand...

Indeed. And they would be inflatable. They only work with the legs down, and would necessarily slow the craft due to wind resistance. The beast is top-heavy, so the pontoons either have to be really big/ugly/in the way, or they will not be stable enough to hold the craft upright, allowing for recovery of card/battery/physical parts only in most cases, I suspect. They could function in that case as auto-deploying life jackets, and inflate only when immersed. Thought about it for years, but would be soooo impractical, dangit.

I would not assume the electronic is shot...
Salt water (or fresh water) does damages only when it is in open air (out of the water).
Oxygen is needed to start the corrosion process (salt or fresh water alike).

If you ever fish your H out, keep it in the water until you are ready to rinse and dry it quickly.
Here is what I would do:
Bring a large container
Fish the H out
Keep it in the water along the boat and scoop it into the container
Take out the battery
Load it onto the boat with the water in the container
Put in a bathtub changing progressively the water from salty to fresh in a way that the H is kept submerged.
Also start taking apart what you can in the water
The idea is to not allow oxygen to start the corrosion process.
Set up a place with a big fan
Once ready rinse the H with the shower at full throttle to make sure no sea water remains anywhere
Bring the H and parts to the fan to dry (wipe out what you can)
Put as much rice you can on any electronics you can get access to (rice absorb moisture)
Finally keep you H to dry for at least 5 days and blow the electronics with canned air (to remove any salt left if any)
before testing it with a battery

This is how one can salvage motors and electronics in the marine world....
Personally I salvaged a camera this way and I had a course in engine recovery as well (I have a boat maintenance technician training).
Also have you tried to put an ad to hire an amateur diver to recover your H?

The last rinse should be in distilled water. (It is a insulator, doesn't conduct electricity)

Click to expand...

In my opinion it does not need to be distilled water as the H isn't powered on and will only be when it is dried.
But maybe are you thinking the residues left from plain water might affect the electronics? (as opposed to no residue left from distilled water?).

In my opinion it does not need to be distilled water as the H isn't powered on and will only be when it is dried.
But maybe are you thinking the residues left from plain water might affect the electronics? (as opposed to no residue left from distilled water?).

Click to expand...

Any residues are conductive, so yes that is why the distilled is always the last rinse.

As a diver/photographer I always have a zip lock bag of distilled water to rescue any camera or light flood.

Any residues are conductive, so yes that is why the distilled is always the last rinse.

As a diver/photographer I always have a zip lock bag of distilled water to rescue any camera or light flood.

Click to expand...

I would be interested in knowing from you what would be your procedure if your camera (or other piece of electronic equipment) dipped into water.
Any different than what I mentioned above about the perfectly working H being thrown into the soup resulting from a momentary lapse of attention ?
I found this subject interesting for me and others as many people do fly drones above water...

Very interesting. Yes .. I too have rescued cameras/electronics from water (never saltwater). ANd I found early as a kid with bare wires and an electric train that water does NOT conduct electricity ... not even tap water ... until you add salt of course, then things get interesting.

Assuming the electronic activity happening with the Typhoon being on a running when it was submerged did not fry IC's, then maybe there is a chance.

Problem with cameras though is that silt gets into the lens ... I had an RX100m3 that I dropped into 2' of creek water, and it recovered nicely after a week of drying - but the smudge of silt inside the lens ruined it for me ...

I think flying over water is one of the primary uses for a drone ... and I fly "knowing" that I could lose it any time ... whether my fault (and yes, I can say every problem I've had to date with my Matrix E, Inspire 1, and Typhoon H have been my fault in one way or another - the exception being a bizarre roof crashing into occurrence with a Walkera that I have no idea what its cause was) ... but nincompoopery or gear failure could happen, and does.

As mentioned earlier if the electronics are wet, remove any batteries and put in plastic bag to keep wet. If possible use fresh water if distilled not available, worst case if it is sea water and nothing else is available the sea water it is. The moment things start drying out the salts start eating conductive paths, by keeping it wet it prevents this first step of destruction.

Once home or to a place you have access to distilled water, rinse the electronics again in fresh water then submerge in distilled water bath, agitate to transport the water throughout the electronics and leave for a day. If the original imersion was in salt water then I do it again with a clean batch of distilled water. At this point it is just a matter of drying out the electronics and pluging the battery back in to test. A week on top of the fridge usually does the trick.

I am still using electronic lights that were fully submerged in salt water for hours and they still work perfectly years later. If you get them cleaned with the distilled water quick enough they usually survive. Did the same with a calculator submerged in coke, big gulp spilled into a car console, rinsed it a bunch in distilled water and still use it today.